OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (CURTIS-DAVIS.) 



573 



made the election of Mr. Lincoln sure. Mr. Lane was 

 .also successful in Indiana. Mr. Curtin entered upon 

 his duties as Governor on Jan. 15, 1861, when every 

 loyal iieart in the North was full of anxiety. When 

 the President-elect was in Harrisburg, Feb. 22, on his 

 memorable journey to Washington, Gov. Curtin was 

 his chief adviser. On April 7 the President tele- 

 graphed the Governor an urgent request for an inter- 

 view in Washington. Gov. Curtin hastened to the 

 national capital, and on the following day the Presi- 

 dent gave him confidential information on the situa- 

 tion. " We are," said he, " on the eve of a great war. 

 Congress is not in session ; 1 can not make such a 

 declaration, and no official notice has been taken of 

 the facts in the States. Your Legislature is in session. 

 Are you willing to present the subject to it?" On 

 receiving an affirmative reply, the President urged 

 that if the Governor was satisfied as to the result he 

 would not delay. Gov. Curtin returned at once to 

 Harrisburg, and dictated a message to the Legislature, 

 on which that body promptly passed a bill investing 

 the Governor with power to raise and equip troops 

 and appropriating $500,000 for the purpose. It is be- 

 lieved that in this interview President Lincoln for 

 the first time expressed his conviction that war was 

 inevitable. After the firing on Fort Sumter, Gov. 

 Curtin called an extra session of the Legislature, asked 

 for authority to raise not fewer than 15 nor more 

 than 30 regiments, to be enlisted for three years, or 

 until the end of the war, and obtained the authority 

 and an appropriation of $3,500,000. The reserves 

 equipped with this fund and hurried to the front by 

 the Governor immediately after the first battle of Bull 

 Kun probably saved the national capital from capture 

 by the victorious Confederates. In 1863 Gov. Curtin's 

 health broke down, and his friends asked the Presi- 

 dent to appoint him to a first-class mission, but before 

 the matter was arranged there was such a general de- 

 mand in the State for his renomination that he con- 

 .sented to be a candidate, and was elected by a major- 

 ity of over 15,000 votes. In 1864 he was so ill that 

 his physicians ordered him to spend the winter in 

 Cuba, after which lie served out his second term, thus 

 more than covering the period of the civil war. Dur- 

 ing his administration he sent into the field 254 regi- 

 ments, 95 companies, and 19 batteries, an aggregate, 

 reduced to the three-year standard, of 265,517 men. 

 In 1868 he actively supported Gen. Grant, who, in 

 one of the first acts -of his administration, appointed 

 him minister to Russia, where he remained nearly 

 four years. He took part in the Liberal Republican 

 movement in 1872 ; was a member of the State Con- 

 stitutional Convention in 187 2 -'7 3 ; was defeated as 

 Democratic candidate for Congress in 1876 ; and was 

 elected in 1880, 1882, and 1884. 



Curtis, George Ticknor, lawyer, born in Watertown, 

 Mass., Nov. 28, 1812 ; died in New York city, March 

 28, 1894. He was a brother of Benjamin Robbins 

 Curtis ; was graduated at Harvard College in 1832 ; 

 taught in Greenfield and read law in Boston ; and was 

 admitted to the bar in 1836. From 1836 till 1862 he 

 practiced law in Boston. He served several terms in 

 the Legislature, and for many years was the United 

 States commissioner in Boston. In 1851, while he 

 held that office, Thomas Sims, a fugitive slave, was 

 taken before him, and after hearing the evidence he 

 decided that the slave must be returned to his master, 

 a decision that provoked the ill-will of all the aboli- 

 tionists in the country. In 1862 Mr. Curtis removed 



the sewing-machine controversy, and the Dred Scott 

 case, besides several important war-claim cotton suits. 

 He was a prolific writer, and contributed frequently 

 to the newspapers and reviews on current public topics. 

 His publications include " Digest of English and 

 American Admiralty Decisions"; vols. ii and iii of 

 " Digest of the Decisions of the Courts of Common 

 Law and Admiralty in the United States " ; " Rights 

 and Duties of Merchant Seamen"; "American Con- 



veyancer"; "Law of Copyrights"; "Law of Pat- 

 ents " ; " Equity Precedents " ; " Inventors' Manual " ; 

 "Commentaries on the Jurisprudence, Practice, and 

 Peculiar Jurisdiction of the Courts of the United 

 States " ; u History of the Origin, Formation, and 

 Adoption of the Constitution of the United States"; 

 " Creation or Evolution" ; a "Life" of James Buch- 

 anan ; and a novel, " John Charaxes." He was one of 

 Daniel Webster's literary executors, and published a 

 " Life " of that statesman in 1870. 



Cyr, Narcisse, missionary, born in Napiervillc, Can- 

 ada, Nov. 29, 1823 ; died m Springfield, Mass., March 

 18, 1894. When seventeen years old he was converted 

 to Protestantism, and for this he was driven from 

 home. Through the influence of his Protestant friends 

 he was enabled to spend a year in study at the Uni- 

 versity of Vermont and five years at the Geneva 

 Theological Seminary, Switzerland. He returned to 

 Canada in 1853, spent several years with the Grande 

 Ligne Mission, established the first French Protestant 

 paper ever published in America, and about 1866 

 removed to the United States. Here he established 

 several missions, was for some time pastor of a Bap- 

 tist church in Philadelphia, Pa., and in 1886 was ap- 

 pointed Professor of French in Boston University. In 

 Boston he established the first French-Canadian Re- 

 publican club in the United States ; founded, edited, 

 and published for four years, at his own expense, 

 a French Republican newspaper, and maintained 

 French Protestant religious services at his own ex- 

 pense. His most noted literary achievement was the 

 discovery abroad and the translation of" The Persecu- 

 tion of the Huguenots." 



Daniels, William B., farmer, born in Mentor, Ohio, 

 in 1818 ; died in Tacoma, Wash., April 21, 1894. He 

 and James A. Garfield were brought up on adjoining 

 farms. In 1853 he emigrated to Oregon, taking his 

 family and household effects in an ox-team wagon 

 and spending six months on the journey. He took 

 up a homestead claim in Yamhill County, resumed 

 farming, and became a local celebrity in politics. In 

 1863 he was appointed Governor of Idaho Territory, 

 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Gov. Wal- 

 lace, and after serving his term returned to his Oregon 

 farm. He removed to Portland in 1870 on being ap- 

 pointed to an office in the customhouse, and thence 

 to Tacoma in 1886, where he was employed by the 

 Northern Pacific Railroad Company. One of his sons 

 is mayor of Vancouver, and another is editor of the 

 Vancouver " Register." 



Davies, Henry Eugene, military officer, born in New 

 York city, July 2, 1836 ; died in Middle borough, Mass., 

 Sept. 6, 1894. He was a son of Henry E. Davies, 

 Chief Justice of the New York Court of Appeals, a 

 brother of Thomas A. Davies, a major general in the 

 cival war, and a grandson of Charles Davies, the 

 mathematician. He was graduated at Columbia Col- 

 lege in 1857, studied law and began practicing in 

 New York city, and at the outbreak of the civil war 

 entered the National army as a captain in the 5th 

 New York Volunteers. Subsequently he was com- 

 missioned major and colonel of the 2d New York 

 Cavalry. On Sept. 16, 1863, he was promoted briga- 

 dier general ; Oct. 1, 1864, was brevetted major 

 general of volunteers ; May 4, 1865, was promoted to 

 the full rank ; and Jan. 1, 1866, he resigned. He 

 served with distinction in the cavalry corps of the 

 Army of the Potomac, and during his last year in 

 the army was in command of the Middle Military 

 District in Alabama. Returning to New York city 

 to resume law practice, he was appointed public ad- 

 ministrator, and, after holding the office for three 

 years, was United States District Attorney for the 

 Southern District of New York for two years. 



Davis, Theodore E., artist, born in Boston, Mass., in 

 1841 ; died in Asbury Park, N. J., Nov. 10, 1894. He 

 removed to Washington, D. C., at an early age ; re- 

 ceived an academical education ; studied drawing on 

 wood and sketching in Brooklyn, N. Y. ; and was 

 first employed as an' artist by the late Frank Leslie. 

 At the beginning of the civil war he became a war 



